Quinn grants emergency aide to Roseland hospital

Share Update:

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Roseland Community Hospital will see another day. Late this afternoon, the Governor sent emergency aid its way, a gesture that could be nothing more than a band aid unless administrators get a business plan in place.

Endless rallies, marches and pleas for state aid paid off in the 11th hour. Late this afternoon, Gov Quinn gave the hospital $350,000 dollars, just enough to buy them a few months and handle payroll so staff do not lose their jobs and patients aren’t left in the cold.

The violence in the neighborhood makes Roseland a busy and necessary place on the south side. But the mounting bills crippled the 162 bed operation serving the poor, mostly minorities with little insurance if any at all.

New money from the governor’s office is a start, but hardly the finish. There is a lot of work to do to keep the hospital open for good.

The Governor’s Office released a statement saying, “This temporary relief will allow their doors to remain open and continue to provide critical care services. However, this is not a long-term solution. The hospital must take the necessary steps to develop a plan for a sustainable future.”

But how far will that gift from the state last? Probably not more than 10 days.

The money comes with conditions that require it to allow independent financial experts to conduct a “comprehensive review of the hospital’s budget, operations and finances,” the state said in a statement. The hospital also is required to bring on an independent chief restructuring officer to oversee the operations and development of a long-term plan to keep Roseland viable.